How many photos will fit on a 16GB flash drive? I have 27,000 photos I want to back up. I am 72 and not tech-savvy.

Great question, Pat. The truth is that number will vary depending on the size of the photos, but here are some general guidelines from the folks at SanDisk. They make a lot of memory storage devices, so they ought to know.

For Compressed JPEG at 100% quality, you can expect this many images per disk or card. The larger the image, the more space it takes up.

Megapixels

File size (MB)

1GB

2GB

4GB

8GB

16GB

32GB

64GB

128GB

4MP

1.2

715

1430

2861

5722

11444

22888

45776

91552

5MP

1.5

572

1144

2288

4577

9155

18310

36620

73240

6MP

1.8

476

953

1907

3814

7629

15258

30516

61032

7MP

2.1

408

817

1634

3269

6539

13078

26156

52312

8MP

2.4

357

715

1430

2861

5722

11444

22888

45776

10MP

3.0

286

572

1144

2288

4577

9155

18310

36620

12MP

3.6

238

476

953

1907

3814

7629

15258

30516

14MP

4.2

204

408

817

1634

3269

6539

13078

26156

16MP

4.8

178

357

715

1430

2861

5722

11444

22888

22MP

6.6

130

260

520

1040

2080

4161

8322

16644

For Uncompressed RAW images, expect this many per card.

Megapixels

File size (MB)

1GB

2GB

4GB

8GB

16GB

32GB

64GB

128GB

4MP

12.0

71

143

286

572

1144

2288

4576

9152

5MP

15.0

57

114

228

457

915

1831

3662

7324

6MP

18.0

47

95

190

381

762

1525

3050

6100

7MP

21.0

40

81

163

326

653

1307

2614

5228

8MP

24.0

35

71

143

286

572

1144

2288

4576

10MP

30.0

28

57

114

228

457

915

1830

3660

12MP

36.0

23

47

95

190

381

762

1524

3048

14MP

42.0

20

40

81

163

326

653

1306

2612

16MP

48.0

17

35

71

143

286

572

1144

2288

22MP

66.0

13

26

52

104

208

416

832

1664

As you can see, you would need probably a 128 GB flash drive or two 64 GB drives. For this many files, you might consider just buying an external hard dedicated to backing up your photos. This would also leave you room to add additional photos later on.